Cathedral Composer (alla Debussy)

As Whole-Play develops, it's getting closer to composing time, that is, to create specific composers to improvise with. There are two problems though:

The system is not quite ready yet, which means there are many limitations (at least comparing to what I imagine is possible), and that can be a bit frustrating/conditioning at times.

A full-fleged composer is a complex thing, and I still don't know how to approach that. I have some ideas, but a bit vague still, and in need of some prototyping and testing.

To address these two issues I've decided to create a few 'small' composers, what I call Proto-Composers, each focusing on a few aspects only, and exploring what's available and what's missing in the system, and how well or not it works with the improvisation. I just finished my first one, loosely based on Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie. It adds a piano part to the guitar improvisation, here's a recording of the result.

Cathedral Composer4.42 MB

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The first Proto-Composer, loosely based on Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie.

Some of the things this composer explores are:

Using the sustain pedal in the piano.

Responding to the improviser intensity (a measure of the number of notes and their loudness). The piano adjusts its volume according to how intensity changes, in a slightly 'elastic' way (closely following the improviser).

Generating chords, adapting to harmony (0:23-2:18).

Generating harmonizations, also adapting to harmony (2:29-2:59).

Responding to the improviser harmonic changes. This I had explored a bit in previous tests, but it was always very loose. In this Composer I try to have faster, more accurate, and more meaningful transitions (i.e. the chord changes in 0:50, 0:57, 1:17, 1:40...).

Creating constrasting sections, and transitioning from one to another. This is one of the things I was refering to in #2 above, I'm sure these explorations will bring some interesting ideas about that.